Scotland #1 – Edinburgh

Okay, I realise that I have abandoned documenting my last visit to the USA. And of course I had another visit in between then and now to Mono Lake in California, that I also need to document.

But here I am, in Edinburgh.

This was a last minute decision. Decided on a whim and we were to fly off less than 2 weeks before departure.

We started out on the 5th of August on my first ever flight on Air France. I did not expect anything much. In fact, I expected the worst and they were surprisingly okay.

One thing about the French language is that there are a lot more words used to express the same thing as compared to English. So, as you board the flight, the flight attendants pretty much ignore you and chat amongst themselves. Then as you pass, they greet you in incomprehensible (at least to me) French to your back.

The food on the flight was not bad. The connecting flight at Charles De Gaulle airport was a complex route. Considering that the flight was in the same terminal 2E, we had to take a train, go through security again, then take a bus to the plane.

We had less than an hour to make the connection and we did. Unfortunately, our bags didn’t. So we are here, bag-less more than 9 hours later.

It was a wet and dreary start to our impression of Edinburgh. But by the time we got to our apartment, the rain had petered off.

Since we wanted to be near the rental flat that we got, so we could rush back to the apartment should the airline call us, we decided to explore the area around here. Leith. It’s the port area of Edinburgh.

Leith used to be the poorer area of town and you’d want to not hang out too late at night. But today, this is all changing.

There are a lot of old and interesting buildings. And good reflections on the river.

And just about everywhere else.

And we also saw the Royal Yacht Britannia which is near the Ocean Terminal, which is a big shopping centre about 10 – 15 minutes walk from the apartment.

For nearly 12 pounds, you get an electronic audio tour guide. You punch in the numbers at certain spots and a narrator talks to you. I found this really inconvenient as it took both hands and it was hard to take photos and be quick.

300 men worked on this boat to take care of the Queen, her family and any visiting dignitaries. Unlike other boats, the men here greeted each other by first name. And to give due respect to the Queen, they weren’t allowed to yell at each other. They had to be civilised and used hand signals instead.

The royal boat has hosted many political leaders who were guests of the Queen before it was decommissioned and now floats in Leith port welcoming paying tourists.

We walked through Commercial Quay, which in the day time, seems a little dead. But I think it will come alive at night since there are many restaurants there, including a Chinese restaurant featured on Gordon Ramsay’s F-word.

And you have such a comprehensive blog entry today, simply because I’ve spent the last 3 hours waiting for the bags to arrive.